Scam: "Registry of World Businesses"

[theoldwolf]

They never stop.

Received this email today:

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Ladies and Gentlemen.

In order to have your company inserted in the registry of World Businesses for 2011/2012 edition, please print, complete and submit the attached form (PDF file) to the following address:

Europe Business Guide
P.O. BOX 2021
3500 GA, UTRECHT
THE NETHERLANDS

email: register@ebg2011online.com
fax: +31 (20) 524-8107

Updating is free of charge!

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Included was this form (click the image for a larger version):



Notice the emphasized line above - but if you look at the itty-bitty print on the contract - because that's what it is - you are agreeing to pay these coprophages €990.00 per year for a three-year period. If you submit the form and then decline to pay, they start the threats and intimidation. It would seem that enough people pungle to make it worth their while.

One google search found me this page, which indicates that the scam has been going on since at least 2009. Pretty lax enforcement of this kind of thing over in Europe, it seemeth me.

It's plain that the Dutch language will be well-represented in Hell.

Comments

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Coprophages? Rabbits would resent these guys.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Publish and Edam'd....

[marmoe.livejournal.com]

Pretty lax enforcement of this kind of thing over in Europe, it seemeth me.

Some of that scum have gone to jail for two years already, however it's hard to really nail them down. How is it done in the US?

http://www.verbraucherabzocke.info/6-Online/6-a-Hintergundmaterial/Mehr-info/100-200-HS-Firmen-Info/152-heller-mehr/152-heller-European-Businessguide.htm

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Interesting you should ask. Just this week my mother got a letter from the Arizona Attorney General's office (indicating that these people (http://ccdesan.livejournal.com/110474.html) were taken to court, shut down, fined, and required to pay restitution to its victims. We have national and state consumer affairs departmens, usually attached to the state Attorneys General offices or the US Attorney's office. The Better Business Bureau also serves a valuable function as a clearinghouse for complaints. Typically the squeaky wheel gets the grease (and the government resources). They won't go after the small fry, but these bad boys were running a huge fraud operation nationwide.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

That's pretty unpleasant fine print down there with it's -75 kerning.

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

If they had used a nauseating font called 'Puke of the Century', they might keep even more people from reading it.